History of Britain's steel industry

1967: British Steel Corporation is formed when the ruling Labour government nationalises the 14 biggest steel producers in the UK.

1970s: Increased production despite falling world demand and a world recession cripples British Steel. The company slashes the workforce from 142,000 in 1980 to 52,000 in 1988.

1984: Norman Tebbit, then trade and industry secretary, warns that the miners' strike could result in closure of British Steel plants. Llanwern in south Wales is thought to be one of those at risk.

March 1988: Ahead of the planned floatation later in the year, the Economist Intelligence Unit reports 82m tonnes of steelmaking over-capacity in the western world.

1988: Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government privatises British Steel. The company is the first to be privatised after the stock market crash in 1987 and is priced at the bottom range of the market.

May 1990: More than 1,100 jobs are axed at the Brymbo steelworks in Wrexham part owned by British Steel.

May 1992: Despite promising to keep the Ravenscraig steel plant open until 1994, British Steel announces the plant's closure with the loss of 1,800 jobs. A further 608 jobs are shed in Shotton, Wales.

December 1993: The European Union offers £5bn in subsidies for state-owned steel companies in eastern Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal in exchange for cuts in production capacity.

January 1995: British Steel announces plans to spend £22m on a second slab casting machine at its Llanwern works in south Wales and £65m on moving two direct reduced iron units from Hunterston in Scotland to the US gulf coast.

October 1999: British Steel and Koninklijke Hoogovens of the Netherlands merge to create the Corus Group, creating the biggest steelmaker in Europe and the third largest in the world.

June 2000: Corus says it plans to slash its workforce by 4,500 (leaving only 33,000 workers in the UK) after making losses to the tune of £20m a month.

January 2001: The Labour government criticises Corus for not informing ministers about restructuring plans that could cost up to 7,000 jobs in the UK.

February 1 2001: Corus, Britain's biggest steel-maker confirms that 6,050 jobs will be cut at plants across the country. Wales will be hardest hit, with 1,340 redundancies at the huge plant in Llanwern, near Newport. The company employs 3,500 workers at Port Talbot, 3,000 at Llanwern in Newport and 3,500 elsewhere in Britain.